Resistance histories: Contemporary literary reconstructions of national history
Item
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Title
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Resistance histories: Contemporary literary reconstructions of national history
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:87337f1c76f4:10174
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identifier
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10273
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Creator
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Hanna, Monica,
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Contributor
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Eugenia Paulicelli
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Date
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2009
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Comparative literature | Romance literature | English literature | American literature | contemporary literature | historiography | literary genres | nationalism
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Abstract
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This study identifies and analyzes methods by which contemporary literary works contest officially sanctioned national histories and present alternative national histories. The dissertation uses the term "resistance histories" to refer to literary texts that participate in critiques of traditional modes of historical and literary representations of the nation, while also interrogating the connection between history and story. The resistance histories discussed in the dissertation include novels, poetry, criticism, and hybrid works by: Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldua, Eavan Boland, Antonio Tabucchi, Junot Diaz, Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, and Vincenzo Consolo. While many studies of the connections between literature and national historical identity discuss these issues either in primarily theoretical terms or by focusing on one national (or regional) context, this dissertation incorporates a comparative emphasis, placing diverse texts in conversation with each other to investigate the reasons for their confluence of style despite different national referents. The techniques explored include a rejection of traditional literary realism through the use of alternative generic elements (including magical realism, science fiction, telenovelas, comics, and hybrid works that draw on various genres), non-standard national language (foreign languages, dialects, vernaculars, and different registers), and the explicit questioning of historical representation (often equating narrative and historical representation by focusing on the element of artifice contained in the construction of both types of narration). The dissertation draws on scholarship in areas related to historiography, nationalism, genre, culture, gender, postmodernism, and postcolonialism.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Comparative Literature
